Solutions that don’t break the bank, reinvent the wheel or marginalize our teachers are within our grasp. We could have rigorous classes, safe and disciplined schools and treat teachers like valued colleagues rather than easily replaceable cogs, and we could do so tomorrow if we wanted. Disclaimer, this is an opinion and commentary site and should not be confused as a news site. Also know that quite often people may disagree with the opinions posted.

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How Florida legislators think

Legislators see failing schools and look for someone to blame.

They see struggling students and come up with one-size-fits-all solutions. They see funding for education and devise schemes to funnel it to their corporate friends.

- John Romano, Tampa Times

I would have added, they think of teachers as the enemy, interested only in pay and benefits and protecting their bad peers, too.

1 comment:

I, my dear friend, would add that education reformers too often believe that public school teachers are enemy combatants in the war on ignorance and illiteracy. I have yet to meet a teacher who consciously or unconsciously opposes better schools for our students. This debate is cloaked in a larger battle on organized labor under the pretenses of helping our children. We are to believe, as many corporate interests have drilled into our heads, that we have to destroy the village in order to save it. The collateral damage that we visit upon honest men and women who dedicate their lives to teaching is merely the cost of doing business for those who wish to enrich themselves as the expense of our state's public education system. I know for a fact that we draw targets on our backs when we try to speak truth to power, but someone has to continue to advocate for our cause which is larger than ourselves. The shame of this situation is that we use the livelihoods of teachers as a bargaining chip in this war on teachers and schools. True bipartisan reform can be possible only if we engage all of our education stakeholders without resorting to the same, tired bromides that treat our teachers like they are somehow bad or evil.